Page 6 of Sven

It was a baby carrier. His heart dropped. What the fuck was about to happen?

“Can I help you?” he asked, hoping and praying this wasn’t what he thought it was.

“Ummm . . . yeah . . . I’m not sure if you remember me. I’m Stacie. Umm, we, umm . . . met . . . a while ago.”

“I remember, Stacie,” he lied. “What can I do for you?”

A cry rang out from the baby carrier next to her, and she bent down to pick up the bundle.

While Sven’s knowledge of babies was minimal, he could tell the baby wasn’t brand new.

He eyed her and the baby carefully, already knowing what was coming, but he was still praying he was wrong.

“This is Winnie,” said the woman as she bounced the baby on her hip.

“I don’t understand.”

“She’s yours.”

The world stopped. It was like the whole universe scratched a record.

“That’s not possible,” he said barely above a whisper.

“I assure you it is, but I’m okay with a paternity test if it would help.”

Sven just stood there, staring at her and the little girl in her arms. She had a head full of dark curly hair, but she had his almond-shaped blue eyes and his lips.

She was his.

He wasn’t sure how much time had passed, but the baby went from fussy to a full cry.

“She’s hungry,” said Stacie as she tried to comfort the crying baby.

“Come in,” Sven said, still stunned, taking her coat and throwing it over the staircase banister.“Do you need to heat up a bottle or whatever?”

“If I can,” she said, bouncing the babe in her arms.

“Right this way,” he said, guiding her into the kitchen.

While part of his brain still told him this was merely a ploy to get in, this was different. He could feel it in his bones.

She pulled out a bottle from the side of the diaper back and headed into the kitchen.

Once she got the bottle warmed up, he showed her to the couch so she could feed the baby.

“What was her name again?” He watched the baby peacefully drink from the bottle.

“Winnie.”

“Winnie,” he said with his eyes glued to the little girl.

“I’m really sorry to just show up like this, but I didn’t know what else to do.”

She was on the brink of tears, but he never knew what to do with crying women, even though he was really good at charming women and even bringing them pleasure. Comforting a crying mother, though, was far out of his comfort zone, let alone the crying mother of his child. His child...Fuck.

He had a million questions running through his head.How did she know it was his? When did it happen? What is she like? Could he hold her? When did they meet? How could he help? How did she find him?

But all that came out was “What did you want?”

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